Seeing He Wei looking at Li Wen in horror and shouting about a ghost, the other two men quickly turned around to look back, only to find that there was nothing there—just a chilling gust of wind brushing across their faces.
Both men shivered simultaneously, realizing they might have been pranked by He Wei. But when they turned back to confront him, He Wei was gone!
After a few seconds of confusion, panic set in. How could he disappear in the blink of an eye? Could this really be ghostly mischief? The more they thought about it, the more terrified they became, for spending the night in such a gloomy graveyard frayed their nerves to the limit.
Li Wen and Zhao Yi shouted He Wei's name and searched the surrounding area of the abandoned graves, but there was no sign of him.
"Where the hell is He Wei? How can he vanish in the blink of an eye? Could something have happened to him?" Li Wen paced anxiously.
Zhao Yi took out his phone, reassuring Li Wen not to panic—they could just call to find out.
The first two calls failed due to poor mountain signal, but the third finally connected. Seconds later, the phone was answered, but eerily, the other end emitted hissing interference, like an old man crying hoarsely with a torn, heart-wrenching wail.
"He Wei, can you hear me? Where are you now? Hello, can you hear me?" Zhao Yi shouted into the phone, but only hisses came through, with no response.
"Damn, this shitty mountain must have terrible signal—we can't hear a thing from the other side," Zhao Yi grumbled.
"Forget it, let's get out of here. I bet that bastard He Wei played a trick on us and ran off on his own. That son of a bitch is so obsessed with saving face he dragged us into this mess. Ugh," Li Wen urged Zhao Yi, spitting in disgust.
Zhao Yi nodded in agreement and was about to turn off his phone when a eerie melody suddenly came through the line: "Weep for my father, weep for my mother, kneel on both knees to bow before my elders..."
Hearing such a spine-chilling song amid the gloomy abandoned graves, Zhao Yi nearly dropped his phone in terror.
"Go to hell, He Wei! You just wait! Not only did you abandon us, but you're using this crap to scare me!" Zhao Yi shouted furiously before storming down the mountain, with Li Wen hot on his heels.
When they returned to the dormitory, they witnessed the scene where He Wei was desperately choking my neck.
After finishing their story, Li Wen eyed me warily and asked, "Lin Yuan, do you think He Wei went crazy from fear at the graveyard tonight? When I walked into the dorm, his expression was no different from a madman's."
I shot him a withering look and decided to come clean: "He's not crazy—he's possessed by an evil spirit!"
"Possessed?" Li Wen and Zhao Yi gaped at each other, then turned to me in astonishment.
"He Wei really has no sense of boundaries. You can't show any disrespect near a graveyard, or you'll easily offend the spirits below," I said gravely.
"Are you saying He Wei encountered something... unclean?" Li Wen asked, eyeing me with a mix of doubt and unease.
I nodded: "He's been taken over by a ghost!"
Upon hearing this, Li Wen and Zhao Yi furrowed their brows, their expressions torn between belief and doubt. After all, living in this era, it wasn't easy for them to embrace the concept of ghosts and gods overnight.
"Don't dismiss it yet. The ghost that possessed He Wei hasn't had her fill of malice—she's bound to return," I said, eyeing the dormitory door nervously.
Though still not fully convinced, the other two felt their nerves spike alongside mine. Their eyes darted toward the door, and Li Wen even dashed over to shut it tightly.
"Lin Yuan, you seem well-versed in Taoist matters. So, if the ghost comes back, what should we do? It's fine if she targets He Wei, but we brothers are innocent," Zhao Yi pressed, leaning in for a solution.
He Wei came from a wealthy family and was tall and burly, a popular figure at school for both his money and physical prowess. Normally, Zhao Yi and Li Wen clung to him like vines seeking shade. Now that the "big tree" was collapsing in crisis, Zhao Yi didn't hesitate to throw him under the bus.
"Exactly, exactly! He Wei brought this upon himself—it has nothing to do with us. If that ghost wants to target someone, let it be him. Don't drag us two into this," Li Wen chimed in, literally dusting off his pants to distance himself from He Wei.
I forced a bitter smile. He Wei had always been arrogant and reckless, forever courting danger. Those who pretended to be his friends only flattered him to his face; none were sincere. The moment crisis struck, they betrayed him without hesitation.
Rubbing my chin in thought, I said, "Ordinarily, if someone shows disrespect at a graveyard, they must take joss paper to the tomb, burn it while loudly apologizing. When leaving, they should walk backward, kowtowing continuously—three steps for a small kowtow, five steps for a large one—until they've retreated a hundred paces."
"Th-then we should wake He Wei and make him go burn joss paper at that graveyard!" Li Wen said, glancing at He Wei lying on the floor.
I shook my head, gazing out the pitch-black window. "It's already late at night. Heading up to those abandoned graves now might lead to encountering something truly sinister. Better to go tomorrow."
"If we wait until tomorrow, won't the ghost come tonight?" Li Wen shrank his neck, stealing another glance at the dark window.
I shrugged, indicating I didn't know. "Even if she does, we still need to sleep. Can't we just sit cross-legged until dawn? We have classes tomorrow, and frankly, I find our homeroom teacher more terrifying than that female ghost."
Li Wen and Zhao Yi nodded, agreeing that my reasoning made sense. Hopefully, we could make it through the night safely!
The three of us worked together to carry He Wei onto his bed, then went to our own beds to sleep. But none of us dared to turn off the desk lamps before bed—afraid of unexpected incidents at night, and a little light could also boost our courage.
In the middle of the night, I seemed to hear deafening gongs and drums. I jolted awake in an instant.
By the time I opened my eyes, the sound of gongs and drums had faded. I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead—was that just a dream? Impossible, the noise had been so vivid.
Just then, the three desk lamps in the dormitory began flickering eerily at the same time, dazzling my eyes.
What on earth was happening? Could all three lamps have malfunctioned simultaneously? Unlikely! Could it be...
As this thought struck me, I quickly glanced at the other two roommates, but they were sleeping soundly like logs, seemingly unaffected.
I let out a long sigh, thinking maybe I'd overreacted. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that all three lamps had malfunctioned at once.
As I turned off the desk lamp, a eerie cacophony of gongs, drums, and suona horns suddenly echoed from the dormitory corridor. The noise was so loud it sent a shudder down my spine.
Not to mention such sounds were impossible on campus in the dead of night—even if they were real, the entire dorm building should have been thrown into an uproar. Yet there was no stir outside, and the three roommates in my dorm slept like logs, completely oblivious to the commotion.
In the past, encountering such a bizarre scene would have had me scrambling back to bed and burying my head under the covers. But having studied some Taoist arts, I felt a surge of confidence—after all, "skill gives courage," as the saying goes. Curiosity overcame my fear, so instead of hiding, I fished out the peachwood sword my second uncle had given me and decided to investigate outside the dorm.
With a hoarse "squeak," I inched the dorm door open. Too wary to rush out, I poked half my head through and cautiously peered into the corridor.
Just then, I saw a procession of people in red robes, their faces painted with thick layers of white powder and dotted with tiny red circles. They played suonas, beat drums, and carried a large pink bridal sedan chair, moving slowly toward the staircase.
Staring at this scene, I froze in shock. Why were these people in the dormitory corridor? What were they doing?
Seconds later, two words flashed through my mind: "wedding procession!" It looked exactly like an ancient bridal convoy, right down to their attire and makeup. But why on earth were they here in the dead of night?
Gazing at their eerie expressions and the sinister atmosphere, a realization struck me—could this be the "ghost wedding" described in the Maoshan Taoist scriptures on ghost lore?
The thought sent an involuntary shiver through me. According to the scriptures, ghost weddings are extremely malevolent and ominous. If a living person encounters one, they must flee immediately, lest they be taken as a bride or groom. Afterward, they should wash their eyes with pomelo leaves and place a paper effigy beside their bed for seven days to signal they already have a partner, warding off ghostly harassment.
To stumble upon a ghost wedding in the dorm corridor at midnight—how unlucky! As a living person, I needed to retreat quickly.
"Ghostly brothers and sisters, wish you a happy wedding, a hundred years of harmony, and early birth of ghostly offspring," I rambled silently. "I didn't mean to intrude—please don't bring misfortune my way." After this mental plea, I prepared to shut the door and bolt back into the dorm.
But at that moment, the wedding procession halted. All of them turned in unison to face me, wearing ghastly smiles. My hair stood on end, and my heart sank—oh no! I'd been spotted!
Just then, the red curtain of the bridal sedan chair was slowly lifted. Inside, I saw two figures: one was a woman with a face covered in sores and crawling with rotting worms. Her eye sockets were empty black holes, and to my horror, a worm crawled out of one socket, inching into her mouth. Her lips suddenly moved, crunching the worm with a "smack."
And the other figure was my roommate—He Wei!
His eyes were vacant, his face blank as he sat in the bridal sedan chair. He mechanically turned to look at me, but there was still no reaction.
Why was He Wei in the ghost's bridal sedan chair? I quickly spun around to look at He Wei's bed and found him lying there safely, not having gone out at all.
Th-this... what on earth was happening? Gazing at He Wei in the large red bridal sedan chair, I felt a creeping horror all over. Then looking at He Wei lying on the bed, that spine-chilling sensation intensified, as if all the blood in my body had reversed course and every hair stood on end. Why were there two He Weis? What was going on here?
Just then, the gongs and drums struck three times, and the eerie large red bridal sedan chair moved again, slowly descending the stairs until it vanished at the stairwell's end.
I swallowed hard and slapped myself—only the pain made me realize that everything that had just happened wasn't a dream.
Suddenly, it dawned on me, and my mind jolted. I rushed over and placed my hand on He Wei's nose to check his breath, but the moment my fingers touched him, I recoiled sharply.
He Wei had no breath! He... was dead!